After Malala shooting, Taliban goes after media critics

Journalists, like many others in Pakistan, have spoken out
strongly since the Taliban attempted to kill the teenage Malala Yousafzai on
October 9. The Taliban, in return, are threatening the media over their
coverage, according to journalists and news reports.

"Media houses, tv anchors and some well-known journalists
are under serious threat," one of our colleagues messaged. "I understand that
some intelligence reports had also intercepted telephone calls to them. The
threats are coming in Swat, Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi. The
situation got worst after media coverage of Malala Yousafzai's case which made
the extremists quite angry."

From a far different part of Pakistan's media spectrum comes
Hamid
Mir, the popular, controversial television anchor for Geo TV and a widely
read columnist. Mir sent along a copy of a seven-page open letter from
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan; Mir was concerned because his
name is mentioned about five times, and he is accused of being "un-Islamic. "

The message offers up a justification for the killing of
Malala, who the Taliban consider to be an adult (She has been variously
reported as 14 or 15 years old). The group wrote that women who abide by sharia
are not supposed to be killed, but it is permitted, even dutiful, to kill those
who aren't as virtuous. The statement singles out the role of Malala, who had blogged for the BBC,
in supposedly spreading propaganda against Muslims.

"This is the second email from the Taliban in 24 hours. They
are freely using emails, calling our colleagues on their mobile phones and the government
is doing nothing except telling us 'The Taliban will kill you,'" Mir said by
email. He was referring to official
notices sent to journalists by local police that they "are on the hit list of
the [Pakistani] Taliban to be targeted," and offering police protection. None of the journalists we contacted who had
received such notices wanted us to use their names-- understandable given the
increased level of threat they are facing. But local journalists and news
reports did say that the Interior Ministry has increased security near
media organizations.

Many Pakistani reporters tell us of having to deal with a
constant fear of retaliation if any of the many sides to the conflict in
Pakistan should be unhappy with their reporting. And the Taliban, in some
cases, have claimed responsibility for killing journalists. But while not media
friendly, the Taliban have become very media savvy, making full use of the
Internet and other digital platforms and keeping local and international
journalists on their speed dial to make sure they are heard.

CPJ has written widely about threats
to journalists, and has encouraged media personnel to tell their employers
and colleagues and actually report on the threats they receive; we feel it is
the best way to counter those threats. The widely spread revelations about the
latest round, this time from Taliban groups, is an indicator of how successful
that tactic can be. It takes a great
deal of courage, because in Pakistan, threats cannot be taken idly. In 2010 and 2011, more journalists were killed in
Pakistan than in any other country. And many of those who died in targeted
killings had first been warned to be silent.

Journalist Hayatullah Khan, for
example, was threatened by virtually every regional faction: Pakistan's
intelligence service, the military, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. In 2006, Khan
was abducted and killed. The day before, Khan had filed a story and photographs
indicating that a U.S.-made missile had struck a home in the tribal town of
Miran Shah, killing senior al-Qaeda operative Hamza Rabia. The pictures--widely
distributed by the European Pressphoto Agency --contradicted the Pakistani
government's explanation that Rabia had died in a blast caused by explosives in
the house. To date, the government has refused to release an investigative
report into his killing despite demands by civil society.

In fact, while the Pakistani authorities have arrested
several suspects in Malala's case, the same government has not demonstrated a
willingness to investigate the scores of attacks on journalists. Pakistan ranks
tenth in CPJ's impunity
index, which calculates unsolved journalist murders as a percentage of each
country's population. Pakistan's rating worsened for the fourth straight year,
and several unsolved journalist murders have suspected government links.

Some journalists have extrapolated the attack on Malala to
make deeper calls for change in Pakistan. In Islamabad's The News, columnist Talat Farooqi captured the stunned state of
many Pakistanis, asking if Malala
is a mirror of a political system that has led its country off the tracks:

And just when one's defense mechanism had kicked in and one
could hear about (other) people dying in terror attacks without losing one's
sleep, Malala decided to shake us to the core of our
beings. Malala is the mirror in which we can all see our faces and
what ugly faces we have!

Take a good look--here are the Taliban, here are the Taliban
supporters, here are the politicians and here are we, the common men and women
of Pakistan. The Taliban are gleeful, the Taliban supporters, bearded or
clean-shaven, are cautious; the politicians are alert, wondering how to
manipulate the situation; and we, the common men and women of Pakistan are
shocked, as if what has happened is a bolt from the blue.

As if innocent men, women and children are not being killed
and maimed day in and day out in this land of the pure for the last 11 years.
All of us are guilty. Malala is a mirror and this is what she reminds
us of.

Sumit Galhotra is the research associate for CPJ's Asia program. He served as CPJ's inaugural Steiger Fellow and has worked for CNN International, Amnesty International USA, and Human Rights Watch. He has reported from London, India, and Israel and the Occupied Territories, and specializes in human rights and South Asia.

Comments

young women of pakistan should form groups and grab taliban members and castrate them--then they would be more docile. Even more, it would put fear in their minds and they would not harm women. Lets have a women's revolt. No more shooting children. Let's see how brave the Taliban is without their testicles.

It would be interesting if a translation of the Taliban letter (so far, I've only come across urdu versions) would be available so that people could actually read what justification the Taliban used and once and for all dismiss them as the lunatics they really are... Do you know where one can find it?